The present invention relates generally to extracting related data from electronic files. The present invention relates more specifically to systems and methods for selecting related information from one or more two-dimensional data files outside of a relational database environment.
Relational database systems are well known in the art. They are useful for organizing large amounts of data and manipulating and presenting the data in response to “queries,” a term well known to those skilled in the art. However, relational database software is often expensive and technically challenging. Further, populating a newly created relational database with preexisting data is often time consuming. Therefore, a primary utility of a relational database system is limited in situations wherein large amounts of data preexist that do not require frequent manipulation.
The need exists for systems and methods for performing relational queries on two-dimensional data files that exist outside of relational database environments. It would be advantageous for such systems and methods to have the capability to relate information from two or more two-dimensional data files.